


You Are My World

by katy15307



Category: Oasis (Band), Stone Roses
Genre: Reunion, etihad, football stadium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 19:08:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5427338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katy15307/pseuds/katy15307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noel gets invited to the Stone Roses' gig but things aren't entirely as they seem (November 2015-June 2016)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are My World

“Daddy!” Noel’s kid yelled as he found him sat playing with his guitar, for his own amusement more than for work, although he did have a piece of work for the album that needed releasing from his brain, he was thinking bloody saxophone solos again.  
“Sonny!” Noel copied his five year old son. “What's up?”  
He loved being at home with his young kids who were still young enough to be excited by anything. He guessed Tommy, their new Jack Russell Terrier had done something to impress Sonny.  
“Letter.” He announced as he held out Noel’s post, a single letter today.  
Sonny was essentially Noel’s mini me, him and Donovan took on basically all of Noel’s features in physical appearance and as they grew up, personality too.  
“It's not bills, is it?” Noel asked in an unusual mood. “Don't want no bills.”  
Sonny shrugged, he didn’t know, it was just a letter as far as he could tell. “Don't think so.”  
Noel put his guitar down and got Sonny to sit on his knee as he examined the letter.  
Their address was handwritten so it wasn’t from some corperation, maybe it was fan mail but that stuff never went straight to the house. Noel opened the letter and passed the envelope to Sonny.  
“Whose writing is that?” he thought out loud.  
Sonny shrugged again. “I dunno Dad. What’s it say?”  
Noel unfolded the letter and read it quickly, he wouldn’t read it out loud to his young son until he knew what it said.  
Something fell from the letter and landed on Noel’s jeans. Noel didn’t notice but Sonny did. He picked up the card and investigated it.  
“The Stone Roses.” he read it out loud, recognising it as a concert ticket. “Who’s The Stone Roses?” He looked at his dad expectantly but he was still reading.  
“They’re doing gigs next year.” Noel exclaimed. “This is brilliant!”  
“Who?” Sonny asked impatiently, he didn’t get why his Dad was excited when he’d never heard of the band.  
“The Stone Roses, kid.” He didn’t know how to describe them, he was just excited to see they were doing gigs again. They’d been gone for fifteen years and he’d managed to miss their recent gigs because of his High Flying Birds tours. “They invited me to their gig… haven’t seen Ian in ages.”  
Sonny looked at him vacantly. Noel was sure he’d educated his sons to the likes of the Stone Roses but he wasn’t too disappointed, knowing they liked U2 already.  
“Where’s me phone?” Noel asked realising he’d have to show him who they were.  
He got his phone and showed Sonny pictures and their music videos using youtube, obviously he didn’t use any of those robbing streaming services. He had their physical CDs, the way it should be but he couldn’t be arsed to go and get them when his phone was right there.  
Sonny really enjoyed their songs, he realised they sounded familiar, he probably knew them after all. He even sung along to Sally Cinnamon which made Noel feel so proud.  
…  
June 15th 2016.  
Noel headed towards Manchester, the town where he was born but that was irrelevant.  
He was incredibly excited to be at The Stone Roses’ first gig, especially since it was at the Etihad stadium.  
He felt a bit odd about it too, every time he’d talked to the Roses since getting the letter they’d insisted he didn’t tell anyone he was going to be there. He assumed it was to stop the gig attracting Oasis or High Flying Birds fans by association of him being there.  
He’d done as he was told but he was annoyed he couldn't bring his family too, Sara, Donovan and Sonny had to stay at home. It was so hard on him to not be able to bring his daughter Anaïs along too, she’d learnt to love the Roses.  
…  
After hanging around with the lads (Ian, John, Mani and Reni) for a while as the stage management set up for them, Ian passed Noel a guitar.  
“What you fucking giving me this for?” He asked, automatically putting the strap over his shoulder. “I'm not playing.”  
“Needs taking on stage.” Ian responded matter of factly.  
Noel was offended, he was there as their VIP guest and good friend. “I'm not a fucking lackey, Ian... them days are long gone.”  
He liked it when he was touring with the Inspiral Carpets, long before he was an actual musician. It wasn’t that he was above carrying stuff but musicians didn’t ask other musicians, unless they were much younger and less experienced.  
“Never said you were mate, just saying it needs to go out.” Ian said, needing to convince him to go out there.  
“Fine.” Noel walked off in a bit of a huff and took the guitar on stage.  
He almost instantly forgot how he felt as soon as he was on the stage, this was home for him, he shouldn't be angry here. It gave him an excitement he just couldn’t describe, it always had.  
The warm summer air and the bright blue sky helped him forget his momentary troubles, it was not like the Manchester he remembered where it was always, always grey.  
He sat on an amp and decided to tune the guitar for them. It was all too natural for him not to, as soon as he was comfy he heard a noise, distracting him from his task, mic feedback.  
Someone must have tapped on it, he judged them for the rock cliche, he assumed it was one of the lackeys mucking about. He turned his attention back to the guitar.  
“Hello Manchester!” The frontman, the show man fantacist greeted his nonexistent crowd.  
Noel looked up recognising exactly whose voice that was. He saw his younger brother swaggering about near the main mic and smirked. He realised they'd been set up and wondered how best to break it to Liam. He should have been pissed at the Rose but this was too clever.  
Liam was enjoying himself, pretending he was at Maine Road again. He knew the stadium would be packed in a few hours and he wished they were coming to see him, to see Oasis but Noel shot down all talks of a reunion over and over again. It wound him up so much.  
In his mind it was long overdue for Noel to come back, he’d walked loads of times, that time he ran off to Vegas, that time he cancelled a shitload of What’s the Story’s tour, every time they’d made up and got past it, it had been nearly seven years since that stupid night in France.  
He heard someone playing his tune I'm Outta Time on guitar. He wasn’t having that, he didn’t care if it was the Stone Roses, they had no right to play his shit.  
“Oi! That’s mine.” He walked towards them as aggressively as he could, he’d have a fight over it if he had to..  
He was taken back a bit when he realised it was Noel. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he frowned at his big brother.  
They hadn’t seen each other since their beloved Man City had won the Premier League again last month. They only met in this stadium these days, that and Christmas, even the Gallagher brothers couldn’t escape family Christmases.  
“Could ask you the same thing.” Noel kept smirking. “Set us up ant they?”  
“We’re on stage together Noelie.” Liam pointed out with a cheeky grin.  
Noel resisted the brotherly urge to insult him for that blatantly obvious statement. “Yeah, we are. The kids are going to be disappointed cos I’m going to kill Ian for this.”  
“Yeah, yeah.” Liam said, knowing Noel was talking crap. “The Roses were the ones who fucking kick started Oasis in the beginning…”  
“No! No fucking way.” Noel interrupted knowing where he was going. “I’m not doing it.”  
The whole world expected it but not one of them understood how he felt. They didn’t understand what it was like to work with Liam and how much Liam had hurt him, enough that he couldn’t stand thinking about August 2009, it made him feel physically sick.  
He finally felt like him and Liam were in a good place, as friends and as brothers, nothing was worth risking that. It didn’t matter how many people insisted they wanted it more than they wanted their next breath (which he thought was a fucking ridiculous thing to say) Oasis was dead and buried, while his High Flying Birds were going strong.  
“What about right here, right fucking now, no audience, just us?” Liam suggested, he was up for it, in fact he wasn’t going to stop until Noel agreed. “One song.”  
Noel picked up on Liam’s absolute eagerness. He knew it could backfire on them both so easily but there was something about City’s stadium, an incredible nostalgia he couldn’t deny.  
“Do you still know the words to Rock ‘n’ Roll Star?” he asked, deciding if this was happening it had to be the first song off their first album. “I mean properly know every fucking word?”  
Liam’s ego took over in answering that. “Course I fucking do.”  
Noel didn’t believe him, he’d fucked up songs live time and time again, claiming he didn’t know verses and all that bullshit… If he couldn’t do it here and now Noel was absolutely certain he would never work with Liam again.  
“If this gets on bloody… Twitter…” Noel threatened, he didn’t get the internet age at all, he wasn’t involved, he’d basically been coerced into having Instagram but he didn’t know how any of that worked… In his day no one would know unless there was a keen journalist about.  
“Rock ‘n’ roll! Get playing it then.” Liam yelled as he walked back towards the mic.  
Noel plugged the guitar into the amp and stood up. He started playing the song with the weirdest feeling he’s ever had, nostalgia, de ja vu, he didn’t know but he loved it.  
Both of them turned when they heard drumming, Reni was taking the place of Tony or Alan, they saw Mani was playing bass too, being their Guigsy while Ian stood watching… They could have done with someone being Bonehead too but somehow it was sounding like it was supposed to. The Stone Roses backing Oasis, the Gallaghers couldn’t believe it, none of them thought they’d have this honour all those years ago when they first saw the Roses live.  
Liam refused to let that phase him. “I live…”  
He had to stop to clear his throat, it had been a while since he’d sang especially like this with Noel and the fucking Stone Roses relying on him to get it right.  
“I live my life in the city! There's no easy way out!” he cracked it that time. “The day's moving just too fast for me.”  
His voice was near perfect, granted it was nothing like it was back in 1994 but he was owning the song like he did back then.  
“I need some time in the sunshine. I've gotta slow it right down. The day's moving just too fast for me!” he continued on before looking to his right for his brother’s approval.  
Noel was smiling and playing, if Noel looked younger, Liam might have been convinced this was a sound check from the 90s, Maine Road April ‘96, Knebworth that August, it could have been either one. Noel couldn’t believe how well this was going.  
Liam turned back to the mic determined to get the next verse exactly right, if he didn’t the song was fucked.  
He broke into the next verse at the right moment. “I live my life for the stars that shine. People say it's just a waste of time! When they said I should feed my head, That to me was just a day in bed. I'll take my car and drive real far. You're not concerned about the way we are. In my mind my dreams are real. Now you're concerned about the way I feel!”  
He took a breath to give the chorus his all. “Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star! Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star!”  
As soon as they got to the end of the song and the music came to the end Noel put the guitar down and the brothers walked towards each other. When they met they hugged patting each other on the back.  
“Think of the fucking crowds we’d pull in.” Liam said, trying to plant the idea in Noel’s mind.  
“I’m not saying never, kid.” Noel told him. “But I can’t promise we’ll ever do this again, for real. At least not today.”


End file.
